5 UFC prospects who turned out to be busts

#4 Justin Levens

The story of Justin Levens is both sad and cautionary

Back in 2005, before the Zuffa takeover, there were few better feeder promotions for the UFC than World Extreme Cagefighting, or WEC. If you succeeded in the WEC you were likely headed for the big time, and that was the path taken by Justin ‘The Executioner’ Levens.

He exploded onto the WEC scene in 2005 with two exciting wins, and with a record of 7-0, it seemed he was destined for UFC success. A loss in January 2006 to Scott Smith seemed to curtail his UFC dream temporarily, but the fight was so exciting that Zuffa ended up signing him anyway.

Levens – a student of the legendary Marco Ruas – was matched with former Middleweight champ Evan Tanner in the UFC’s first show in California, UFC 59. It was a tough debut fight for Levens as it was a big step up in competition, and despite putting up a good fight he was submitted late in the first round.

Still, he’d proven that he could hang at the UFC level, right? Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Levens was knocked out by Jorge Santiago in his second UFC fight and from there he spiralled downwards.

A pair of wins on the smaller circuit – one in the WEC – were followed by five straight losses, leaving Levens with a disappointing record of 9-8. As one of the first fighters to wear Affliction clothing, he was signed to fight at the first Affliction show in 2008, but a positive test for banned painkillers forced him off the card and landed him with a suspension.

Just months later, Levens was dead at just 28 years old – he committed suicide in an apparent pact with his wife. It was a sad and cautionary tale of what could happen to a big-time prospect that just couldn’t live up to his early potential at the top level.